Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 4.djvu/622

608 fifty churches ordered to be built in the metropolis and its vicinity in the tenth year of queen Anne. The first which he built is his finest—St. Martin's, at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square. This consists of the model of a Grecian temple, the whole design kept as close to the original as the requirements of protestant worship allow, faced by a noble hexastyle Corinthian portico, surmounted by an Italian tower and spire. Much objection has been made to the anomaly of placing a spire on the roof of a temple, both because towers and spires should naturally stand upon the ground, and because such additions are utterly discordant with the principle of the main erection; but, spite of these drawbacks, it must be allowed that St. Martin's is one of the most beautiful churches in the kingdom, and, were the spire away, would bear a strong resemblance to the Madeleine, in Paris. Besides St. Martin's, Gibbs was the architect of St. Mary's, in the Strand; Marylebone Chapel; the body of All Saints, Derby—an incongruous addition to a fine old Gothic tower; the Radcliffe Library, at Oxford; and the west side of the quadrangle of King's College, and the Senate House, Cambridge, left incomplete. In these latter works Sir James Burrows, the designer of the beautiful chapel of Clare Hall, in the same university, was also concerned. Gibbs was, moreover, the architect of St. Bartholomew's Hospital. The greater portion of Gibbs's works present a strange medley of composition, without much original invention.

Nicholas Hawksmoor, a pupil of Wren's, and an assistant of Vanbrugh's in building Castle Howard and Blenheim House, was the architect of St. George's-in-the-East, Ratcliflfe Highway, commenced in 1715; St. Mary Woolworth's, Lombard Street; St. George's, Bloomsbury; St. Anne's, Limehouse; Easton Norton House, in Northamptonshire; and some other works, including a mausoleum at Castle Howard, and repairs of the west front of Westminster Abbey. St. George's, Bloomsbury, is perhaps his finest erection, which has a Corinthian portico, like St. Martha's, and the steeple is surmounted by a statue of George II. On the whole, Hawksmoor's erections are heavy and bald.

During this period, St. John the Evangelist, Westminster, was built by Thomas Archer. The churches of Greenwich; St. George's, Hanover Square; and St Luke, Middlesex, by John James. St. Giles-in-the-Fields; St. Olave's, Southwark, and Woburn Abbey, by Flitcroft; Chatsworth House and Thoresby, by Salmon; Montagu House, by the French architect, Pouget; All Saints' Church, and the Peckwater Quadrangle of Christ Church, Oxford, by Dean Aldrich; and the library of Christ Church, designed by Dr. George Clarke, M.P. for Oxford, in the reign of Anne. After these the earl of Burlington, a worshipper of Palladio and Inigo Jones, became a very fashionable architect, and built Chiswick, a copy of the Villa Carra, near Vincenza, since spoiled by incongruous additions; the dormitory at Westminster School; Petersham House, and other noblemen's mansions. The fine colonnade in the courtyard of Burlington House, hidden by the ugly high wall in Piccadilly, is also his work. Burlington was essentially a copyist, as was his protegé Kent, who built Holkham, in Norfolk, and the Horse Guards, but acqirued as much reputation by his landscape gardening as he did little by his architecture. Kent had the honour of introducing the natural style of laying out grounds and gardens, so finely recommended by Bacon and by the descriptions of Spenser and Milton, and partly adopted by Pope. This system was afterwards taken up and made more general by Launcelot Brown, called Capability Brown, and has now become universal. Kent, however, was so much the fashion, that he was consulted in patterns for furniture, plate, and even ladies' dresses. Towards the end of this period several foreign artists were employed here. We have already named Pouget; Giacomo Leoni was much employed; and Labelye, a Swiss, built Westminster Bridge, which was completed in 1747. Thomas Ripley, originally a carpenter, built the Admiralty.

PAINTING AND SCULPTURE.

Painting, like architecture, was at a very low ebb during this period, with one or two brilliant exceptions. Foreign artists were in demand, and there was no native talent, except that of Thornhill and Hogarth, which could claim to be unjustly overlooked in that preference. Lely In portrait was still living, and Sir Godfrey Kneller, another foreigner, was already taking his place. Kneller was a German, born at Lǖbec, and educated under the best Flemish masters of the day. As he had chosen portrait painting as his department, he hastened over to England after a visit to Rome and Venice, as the most profitable field for his practice, and being introduced to Charles II. by the duke of Monmouth, had became at once the fashion. Kneller had talents of the highest order, and, had not his passion for money-making been still greater, he would have taken rank with the great masters; but, having painted a few truly fine pictures, he relied on them to secure his fame, and commenced an actual manufacture of portraits for the accumulation of money. Like Rubens, he sketched out the main figure, and painted the head and face, leaving his subordinates to fill in all the rest. He worked with wonderful rapidity, and had figures often prepared beforehand, on which he fitted heads as they were ordered. Amongst his assistants were Pieters, Bakker, Vander Roer, Flemings, and the two Bings—the latter Englishmen. Sir John Medina, a Fleming, was the great manufacturer of ready-made figures and postures for him, the rest filled in the draiperies and backgrounds. He had a bold, free, and vigorous hand, painting with wonderful rapidity, and much of the grace of Vandyck, but only a few of his works show what he was capable of. The beauties of the court of William and Mary, which may be seen side by side with those of the court of Charles II. by Lely at Hampton Court, are far inferior to Lely's. His "Converted Chinese," and the portrait of the earl of Bute, at Luton House, may be taken as specimens of his best style.

During this time foreign painters of various degrees of merit flourished in England. Amongst these were John Baptist Vanloo, brother of the celebrated Carl Vanloo, a careful artist; Joseph Vanaken, a native of Antwerp, who did for Hudson what his countrymen did for Kneller—furnish draperies and attitudes. He also supplied many others, so that Hogarth painted his funeral as followed by all the painters of the day in despair. The celebrated battle-painter, Peter Vander Meulen, Hemskirk, Godfrey Schalken, famous for his candle-light effects, John Van Wyck, a famous painter of horses, James Bogdani, a Hungarian flower, bird, and fruit painter, Balthazer Denner, famous